How To Do Laundry At GW
Main article: Laundry & Dry Cleaning There are many students that have never done their own laundry before they arrive at GW, and doing laundry on their own is the thing they're most nervous about in their first semester. Follow this instruction manual and you'll be fine! There are two options for doing laundry at GW. First, most dorms on campus have washing machines and dryers either in the basement or in another room. Students can do their own laundry here. Secondly, students may hire a laundry service to do their laundry for them. Soapy Joe's is the most popular external company that students hire to do their laundry. Option 1: Doing Your Own Laundry In Your Dorm Simplified Version #Put clothes in washer. (Separate light and dark clothing into separate washers.) #Add detergent. #Swipe GWorld and select corresponding machine or enter quarters into machine. #Choose a wash cycle. #When finished, put clothes in dryer and add dryer sheet. #Swipe GWorld and select corresponding machine or enter quarters into machine. #Choose a dryer cycle. #Unload. For Dummies Version (With all the details) #Take your laundry basket with laundry, detergent, and dryer sheets to the laundry room in your dorm. #Load an empty washing machine with either dark or light clothes (dark clothes are anything with color in them; light clothes can be white, off-white, khaki, etc.). The reasoning behind this is as your clothes are soaked with water, the colors come out of your colored clothes and can show up in non-colored clothes if you don't have them separated. If you are having to stuff clothes in the washing machine to keep them from falling out, that probably means you should split it into multiple loads. #Add detergent into the opening on the top of the washer. (Once you get more experienced at it, you can do this step after you select a wash option and the water starts flowing, but for now to keep it simple, add the detergent here. Most people don't mess with bleach because it is easy to ruin your clothes if you don't do it right, but see addendum below if you really want to mess with bleach) Different detergents are different. Look on your detergent container to see how much detergent you need to add. #Swipe GWorld and select corresponding machine or enter quarters into machine. There will be a GWorld swipe machine on the wall somewhere, and after you swipe your card, enter the corresponding number-letter combination of your washer, for example, A1 or B4. The letter-number combo should be marked clearly on each dryer. If the swipe has worked, you will see your GWorld balance on the machine screen. If you are using quarters, simply enter the correct amount of quarters needed into the machine your clothes are in. #Choose a wash cycle. There are buttons on the washer that will correlate to different water temperatures and spinning speeds. There should be something on the dryer that tells you which button will make it cold and fast, or warm and medium, etc. Usually hot water for whites, warm for colors, and cold for delicates. #Wait, and unload when finished. Usually the university washers take about 40 minutes to complete. When it's done, take your clothes out of the washer and put them into an open dryer. Add a dryer sheet and make sure that the dryer filter is cleaned (it should be noted on the dryer). #Do the same as step 4, except this time choose the button that allocates to your dryer. After you swipe, push the button on the dryer that correlates with what speed and temperature you want. #Dryers usually take about 1 hour to finish a full cycle. You may however, open the dryer at anytime, something you can't do with washers. Washers are locked after the first few minutes and do not unlock until the cycle is finished. #Remove clothes from dryer. If you do this promptly after the cycle finishes, your clothes should not be wrinkled before you can fold them. Note: Using the university washers and dryers costs around $1.25 for each cycle. Option 2: Hiring A Service To Do Your Laundry #Go to SoapyJoes.com to sign up with Soapy Joe's. They will provide bags with which you will have to fill with your dirty clothes and place in the lobby of your dorm at a designated time during the week. After a day they will return your now clean clothes with your bag in the lobby. Payment plans run from $85 to $158 for 7 weeks of laundry services, depending on the amount of laundry. External Links Category:Student Life Category:Help!